Obama's Syria plan meets resistance

President Barack Obama is either too timid, or the second coming of George W. Bush. He either has no strategy or is wading into a conflict that the country won’t support and can’t win. He’s either arming terrorists who will eventually turn against the United States, or he’s taking an imperfect step in helping defeat a dangerous threat to America.

All these statements come from members of Congress as they ready to cast a vote on a key element of Obama’s foreign policy.

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After years of tepid relations with Congress, Obama is asking lawmakers to quickly authorize a mission to arm and train Syrian rebels to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Obama has been feverishly lobbying Capitol Hill to run up the vote count, but the White House is running into stubborn opposition from an unusual cross section of lawmakers in both parties.

The opponents of Obama’s Syria plan do not appear to have the support needed to derail the legislation, but the amount of opposition from Republicans and Democrats has startled both the White House and congressional leaders. And that vocal and passionate opposition to Obama’s strategy could rob the president of a big vote count — dampening a political victory critical for his standing in the global community.

Opponents of the Obama plan include members of the House and Senate intelligence committees like Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), a former lawyer in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, who told GOP leaders he would vote “no” because Congress is being suckered into a losing strategy

There’s Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a likely future member of his party’s leadership who says he’s “leaning no” because there are too many questions about Obama’s strategy. White House officials have tried to answer those questions by spending time with Himes on the phone.

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) thinks the Obama strategy doesn’t go far enough. So does Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), an Army veteran, who said in an interview he is “wondering if this plan is robust enough to actually do the mission.”

Leaders in both parties say they believe the House will approve the Syria proposal when it comes up for a vote Wednesday. Democrats will reluctantly rally behind the commander in chief. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could prove critical for wary Democrats, and late on Tuesday afternoon, she made an argument for why doves should support Obama’s efforts. In a closed meeting, Pelosi said that Bush misled Americans when he was president and that war is not the answer, but she added that she would vote for the amendment because it does not authorize a full-blown conflict. Similarly, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a member of Pelosi’s leadership team, said he’s “leery,” but would support the president, and he’s lobbying his fellow Democrats to do the same. One senior aide said White House briefings have been profoundly unhelpful for Democrats and have even turned supporters into opponents.

Republican leaders expect most of the rank and file will look away, hold their noses and vote yes. But the significant unease in the GOP ranks speaks volumes about their discomfort with the strategy, the sharp divisions in Congress and the distrust and dislike of Obama on Capitol Hill.

The White House, which has never had particularly good relations with either party in the House, is in the middle of one of the most significant lobbying efforts of Obama’s presidency.

Obama personally called House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation. McCarthy told the president he needed to spend time whipping Democrats to support the Syria measure, which will be offered as an amendment to a must-pass government funding bill.

House Democrats, meanwhile, think they have anywhere from 120 to 160 votes in favor of Obama’s plan, although the number is “soft” and lots of Democrats are wary of the plan, according to several sources.

If Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) — who both back the proposal — can deliver that many votes for the White House, it would mean roughly half of the House Republican Conference would need to support Obama’s plan to ensure a victory.

Pelosi and Hoyer, though, have all but given up whipping hard-core progressives on this issue, meaning they need to work the remaining rank-and-file Democrats that much harder.

Obama and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) didn’t talk on Tuesday, but senior staffers for the two were in close contact. Boehner is in favor of Obama’s Syria plan, but not by much. He questions whether the plan is enough to defeat the terrorist group.

Even though the stakes are incredibly high for Boehner and Obama, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) is not urging lawmakers to vote for the plan. He considers it a “vote of conscience” and has only “surveyed” support for the measure.